Landscape design

Urban design

Collaborative design

At the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, an excellent example of collaborative design, involving 32 designers and 20 local companies, that also represents a reflection on the Nordic tradition of production

The Nationalmuseum of Stockholm – with its collection of art, applied arts and design from 1500 until the present day – re-opened just a few months ago following a renovation that took five years (by Wingårdhs-Wikerstål).

A long break in activity that has proved an opportunity to put new modes of design into effect. Commencing with the new restaurant and cafeteria, commissioned as a necessary extension of the museum, which have been conceived in the manner of an artistic project. In keeping with the mission of a public museum, that of making its contents accessible to as many people as possible, the management chose not to rely on a single designer, but to get an entire collective to work on it together, exploring innovative materials and methodologies, discovering old and new local producers and, as the end result, giving visitors the possibility to enter physically into the project of design by utilizing the new space.

The spaces of the restaurant and cafeteria are located in three large galleries on the ground floor, previously closed to the public. The 300 Atelier Chairs, designed by TAF Studio and made by Artek, are also utilized in the auditorium. The Terrain tables, designed by Peter Andersson, are produced by Swedese. (ph. Pia Ulin)

Matti Klenell, who was entrusted with its artistic direction, and his team made up of Carina Seth Andersson, Gabriella Gustafson, Mattias Stöhlbom and Stina Löfgren, scoured the length and breadth of Scandinavia – Stockholm Old Town, the woodland region of Värmland and the glass-producing area of Häme – in search of small and large companies willing to make the new objects: seats, lamps, tableware, containers. NM& En Ny Samling – the name of the collection – reflects the social aspect of the project, which has an incredibly coherent appearance notwithstanding the many people involved: 32 designers for 82 new pieces – each marked with a number, like the museum’s artworks – produced by 20 companies.

An army that stems in part from a reflection on the region’s capacity for production, on how much has been lost and how much remains of the Nordic heritage today. “It has been harder to go back to the roots than to turn to the new,” says Matti Klenell, “but in the end each product in the collection has a well-documented pedigree around its origins, just as we hoped would happen at the beginning of our journey.”

Chandelier NM& 001. The fruit of the collaboration of eight designers, it was made by Glass Factory. (ph. Pia Ulin)

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31 August 2019

Founded in 1961 by Piera Peroni Abitare magazine has crossed the history of costume, architecture and design, international, following in its pages the evolution of our ways of life and how we inhabit places